Angola
Angola is a country in Africa. History Early migrations and political units Modern Angola was populated predominantly by nomadic Khoi and San prior to the first Bantu migrations. The Khoi and San peoples were neither pastoralists nor cultivators, following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.8 They were displaced by Bantu peoples arriving from the north, most of whom likely originated in what is today northwestern Nigeria and southern Niger.9 Bantu speakers introduced the cultivation of bananas and taro, as well as large cattle herds, to Angola's central highlands and the Luanda plain.8 During this time, the Bantu established a number of political entities in most of what today comprises Angola. The best known of these was the Kingdom of the Kongo, which was based in Angola, but also extended northward to what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, as well as Gabon. It established trade routes with other city-states and civilisations up and down the coast of southwestern and western Africa and even with Great Zimbabwe and the Mutapa Empire but engaged in little or no transoceanic trade.10 To its south lay the Kingdom of Ndongo, from which the area of the later Portuguese colony was sometimes known as Dongo.11 Portuguese colonisation The region, now known as Angola, was reached by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in 1484.11 The year before, the Portuguese had established relations with the Kongo, which stretched at the time from modern Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese established their primary early trading post at Soyo, which is now the northernmost city in Angola apart from the Cabinda exclave. Paulo Dias de Novais founded São Paulo de Loanda (Luanda) in 1575 with a hundred families of settlers and four hundred soldiers. Benguela was fortified in 1587 and elevated to a township in 1617. The Portuguese established several other settlements, forts and trading posts along the Angolan coast, principally trading in Angolan slavesfor Brazilian plantations. Local slave dealers provided a large number of slaves for the Portuguese Empire,12 usually sold in exchange for manufactured goods from Europe.1314 This part of the Atlantic slave trade continued until after Brazil's independence in the 1820s.15 Despite Portugal's territorial claims to Angola, its control over much of the country's vast interior was minimal.11 In the 16th century Portugal gained control of the coast through a series of treaties and wars. Life for European colonists was difficult and progress proved to be slow. Iliffe notes that "Portuguese records of Angola from the 16th century show that a great famine occurred on average every seventy years; accompanied by epidemic disease, it might kill one-third or one-half of the population, destroying the demographic growth of a generation and forcing colonists back into the river valleys". During the Portuguese Restoration War, the Dutch West India Company occupied the principal settlement of Luanda in 1641, using alliances with local peoples to carry out attacks against Portuguese holdings elsewhere.15 A fleet under Salvador de Sá retook Luanda in 1648; reconquest of the rest of the territory was completed by 1650. New treaties with the Kongo were signed in 1649; others with Njinga's Kingdom of Matamba and Ndongo followed in 1656. The conquest of Pungo Andongo in 1671 was the last major Portuguese expansion from Luanda, as attempts to invade Kongo in 1670 and Matamba in 1681 failed. Colonial outposts also expanded inward from Benguela, but until the late 19th century the inroads from Luanda and Benguela were very limited.11 Hamstrung by a series of political upheavals in the early 1800s, Portugal was slow to mount a large scale annexation of Angolan territory.15 The slave trade was abolished in Angola in 1836, and in 1854 the colonial government freed all its existing slaves.15 Four years later, a more progressive administration appointed by Lisbon abolished slavery altogether. However, these decrees remained largely unenforceable, and the Portuguese were dependent on assistance from the Royal Navy to enforce their ban on the slave trade.15 This coincided with a series of renewed military expeditions on the hinterland, and by the mid-nineteenth century Portugal had established its dominion as far east as the Congo River and as far south as Mossâmedes.15 Until the late 1880s, Lisbon entertained proposals to link Angola with its colony in Mozambique, but was blocked by British and Belgian opposition.17 During this whole period, the Portuguese came up against different forms of armed resistance from various peoples in Angola.18 The Berlin Conference in 1884-1885 fixed the colony's borders, delineating the boundaries of Portuguese claims to Angola.,17 although many details were resolved afterwards, until the 1920s.19 Trade between Portugal and her African territories also rapidly increased as a result of protective tariffs, leading to increased development, as well as a wave of new Portuguese migrants.17 Rise of Angolan nationalism Under colonial law, black Angolans were forbidden from forming political parties or labour unions.20 The first nationalist movements did not take root until after World War II, spearheaded by a largely Westernised, Portuguese-speaking urban class which included many mestiços.21During the early 1960s they were joined by other associations stemming from ad hoc labour activism in the rural workforce.20 Portugal's refusal to address increasing Angolan demands for self-determination provoked an armed conflict which erupted in 1961 with the Baixa de Cassanje revolt and gradually evolved into a protracted war of independence that persisted for the next twelve years.22 Throughout the conflict, three militant nationalist movements with their own partisan guerrilla wings emerged from the fighting between the Portuguese government and local forces, supported to varying degrees by the Portuguese Communist Party.2123 The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) recruited from Bakongo refugees in Zaire.24 Benefiting from particularly favourable political circumstances in Léopoldville, and especially from a common border with Zaire, Angolan political exiles were able to build up a power base among a large expatriate community from related families, clans, and tradition.25 People on both sides of the border spoke mutually intelligible dialects and enjoyed shared ties to the historical Kingdom of Kongo.25 Though as foreigners skilled Angolans could not take advantage of Mobutu Sese Seko's state employment programme, some found work as middlemen for the absentee owners of various lucrative private ventures. The migrants eventually formed the FNLA with the intention of making a bid for political power upon their envisaged return to Angola.25 A largely Ovimbundu guerrilla initiative against the Portuguese in central Angola from 1966 was spearheaded by Jonas Savimbi and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).24 It remained handicapped by its geographic remoteness from friendly borders, by the ethnic fragmentation of the Ovimbundu, and the isolation of peasants on European plantations where they had little opportunity to mobilise.25 Against the background of these simultaneous efforts, the rising of the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the east and Dembos hills north of Luanda came to hold special significance. Formed as a coalition resistance by the Angolan Communist Party,22 the organisation's leadership remained predominantly Ambundu and courted public sector workers in Luanda.24 Although both the MPLA and its rivals had accepted material assistance from the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China, the former harboured strong anti-imperialist views and was openly critical of the United States and its support for Portugal.23 This allowed it to win important ground on the diplomatic front, soliciting support from nonaligned governments in Morocco, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and the United Arab Republic.22 The MPLA attempted to move its headquarters from Conakry to Léopoldville in October 1961, renewing efforts to create a common front with the FNLA, then known as the Union of Angolan Peoples (UPA) and its leader Holden Roberto. Roberto turned down the offer.22 When the MPLA first attempted to insert its own insurgents into Angola, the cadres were ambushed and annihilated by UPA partisans on Roberto's orders—setting a precedent for the bitter factional strife which would later ignite the Angolan Civil War.22 Civil war Throughout the war of independence, the three rival nationalist movements were severely hampered by political and military factionalism, as well as their inability to unite guerrilla efforts against the Portuguese.26 Between 1961 and 1975 the MPLA, UNITA, and the FNLA competed for influence in the Angolan population and the international community.26 The Soviet Union and Cuba became especially sympathetic towards the MPLA and supplied that party with arms, ammunition, funding, and training.26 They also backed UNITA militants until it became clear that the latter was at irreconcilable odds with the MPLA.27 The collapse of Portugal's Estado Novo government following the 1974 Carnation Revolution led to a suspension of all Portuguese military activities in Africa and the brokering of a ceasefire pending negotiations for Angolan independence.26 Encouraged by the Organisation of African Unity, Holden Roberto, Jonas Savimbi, and MPLA chairman Agostinho Neto met in Mombasa in early January 1975 and agreed to form a coalition government.28 This was ratified by the Alvor Agreement later that month, which called for general elections and set the country's independence date for 11 November 1975.28 All three factions, however, followed up on the ceasefire by taking advantage of the gradual Portuguese withdrawal to seize various strategic positions, acquire more arms, and enlarge their militant forces.28 The rapid influx of weapons from numerous external sources, especially the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the escalation of tensions between the nationalist parties, fueled a new outbreak of hostilities.28 With tacit American and Zairean support the FNLA began massing large numbers of troops in northern Angola in an attempt to gain military superiority.26 Meanwhile, the MPLA began securing control of Luanda, a traditional Ambundu stronghold.26 Sporadic violence broke out in Luanda over the next few months after the FNLA attacked MPLA forces in March 1975.28 The fighting intensified with street clashes in April and May, and UNITA became involved after over two hundred of its members were massacred by an MPLA contingent that June.28 An upswing in Soviet arms shipments to the MPLA influenced a decision by the Central Intelligence Agency to likewise provide substantial covert aid to the FNLA and UNITA.29 In August 1975, the MPLA requested direct assistance from the Soviet Union in the form of ground troops.29 The Soviets declined, offering to send advisers but no troops; however, Cuba was more forthcoming and in late September dispatched nearly five hundred combat personnel to Angola, along with sophisticated weaponry and supplies.27 By independence there were over a thousand Cuban soldiers in the country.29 They were kept supplied by a massive airbridge carried out with Soviet aircraft.29 The persistent buildup of Cuban and Soviet military aid allowed the MPLA to drive its opponents from Luanda and blunt an abortive intervention by Zairean and South African troops, which had deployed in a belated attempt to assist the FNLA and UNITA.28 The FNLA was largely annihilated, although UNITA managed to withdraw its civil officials and militia from Luanda and seek sanctuary in the southern provinces.26 From there, Savimbi continued to mount a determined insurgent campaign against the MPLA.29 Between 1975 and 1991, the MPLA implemented an economic and political system based on the principles of scientific socialism, incorporating central planning and a Marxist-Leninist one-party state.30 It embarked on an ambitious programme of nationalisation and made a concerted attempt to eliminate the preexisting private sector.30 All locally owned enterprises in every sector of economic activity were subject to nationalisation by the state. These were then incorporated into a single umbrella of state-owned enterprises known as Unidades Economicas Estatais (UEE).30 Under the MPLA, Angola experienced a significant degree of modern industrialisation.30However, corruption and graft also increased as public resources were either allocated inefficiently or simply embezzled by officials for personal enrichment.31 The ruling party survived an attempted coup d'état by the Maoist-oriented Communist Organisation of Angola(OCA) in 1977, which was suppressed after a series of bloody political purges that left thousands of OCA supporters dead.32 The MPLA abandoned its former Marxist ideology at its third party congress in 1990, and declared social democracy to be its new platform.32 Angola subsequently became a member of the International Monetary Fund; restrictions on the market economy were also reduced in an attempt to draw foreign investment.33 By May 1991 it had reached a peace agreement with UNITA, the Bicesse Accords, which scheduled new general elections for September 1992.33 When the MPLA secured a major electoral victory, UNITA objected to the results of both the presidential and legislative vote count and returned to war.33 Ceasefire with UNITA On 22 March 2002, Jonas Savimbi was killed in action against government troops. UNITA and the MPLA reached a cease-fire shortly afterwards. UNITA gave up its armed wing and assumed the role of a major opposition party. Although the political situation of the country began to stabilise, regular democratic processes did not prevail until the elections in Angola in 2008 and 2012 and the adoption of a new constitution in 2010, all of which strengthened the prevailing dominant-party system. Angola has a serious humanitarian crisis; the result of the prolonged war, of the abundance of minefields, of the continued political (and to a much lesser degree) military activities in favour of the independence of the exclave of Cabinda (carried out in the context of the protracted Cabinda Conflict by the Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda, (FLEC)), but most of all, by the depredation of the country's rich mineral resources by the régime.[citation needed] While most of the internally displaced have now settled around the capital, in the so-called musseques, the general situation for Angolans remains desperate.3435 Drought in 2016 caused the worst food crisis in Southern Africa in 25 years. Drought affected 1.4 million people across seven of Angola's 18 provinces. Food prices rose and acute malnutrition rates doubled, with more than 95,000 children affected. Food insecurity was expected[by whom?] to worsen from July to December 2016.36 Geography At 1,246,620 km2 (481,321 sq mi),37 Angola is the world's twenty-third largest country. It is comparable in size to Mali, or twice the size of France or Texas. It lies mostly between latitudes 4° and 18°S, and longitudes 12° and 24°E. Angola is bordered by Namibia to the south, Zambia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north-east and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west. The coastal exclave of Cabinda in the north, borders the Republic of the Congo to the north, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south.38 Angola's capital, Luanda, lies on the Atlantic coast in the northwest of the country. Climate Angola, although located in a tropical zone, has a climate that is not characterized for this region, due to the confluence of three factors: * The Benguela Current, cold, along the southern part of the coast; * The relief in the interior; * Influence of the Namib Desert in the southwest. As a result, Angola's climate is characterized by two seasons: rainfall from October to April and drought, known as Cacimbo, from May to August, drier, as the name implies, and with lower temperatures. On the other hand, while the coastline has high rainfall rates, decreasing from North to South and from 800 mm to 50 mm, with average annual temperatures above 23 ° C, the interior zone can be divided into three areas: * North, with high rainfall and high temperatures; * Central Plateau, with a dry season and average temperatures of the order of 19 ° C; * South with very high thermal amplitudes due to the proximity of the Kalahari Desert and the influence of masses of tropical air.3940 Travel Tips * Luanda is a nice place to visit * Also visit Cabinda, an enclave in the North. It borders Rep. of the Congo